The once peaceful green sky of Ka'tharr with its twin suns was now red, beams of energy and different magic flying around.
Most of the land was in ruins, fire at every corner the eye wandered to. Humans in tactical gear shooting guns and some magicians using their abilities on the beast-kin of the Ka'tharri world.
"Azan! Run faster my child!" His mother yelled in Arkema tongue as she waited for him ahead—a beast-kin. One that looked like a human-wolf hybrid. Slightly furry skin and sharp claws, golden eyes and a slightly human face.
Azan ran as fast as he could. A beam of light shot to his side, the rocks exploding and sending him crashing on the ground.
He got back up and continued towards his mother. "Mother!" he called out, tears in his eyes.
He wasn't more than eight, if compared to a human. Despite being beast-kins, the Arkemas were beasts whose base form resembled humans, though they could transform.
However, children were unable to transform until they got to a stage where they could finally manifest this beastly form.
Azan looked purely human and at the very moment, his young mind hated every second of his life looking that way.
How had it all come to this?
Just a human year ago, a puncture in the fabric of reality appeared in Ka'tharr and the first portal appeared.
At first it was scientist. They claimed to have used magitech to experiment creating portals to other worlds and it worked. They explored the lands, learnt about the beast-kins and then they left, taking a few beast-kins back so they could explore the human world as well.
But the beast-kins never came back.
Then came the journalists and adventurers. Then came the soldiers of the Aegis Guild, a private corporation. The didn't come for knowledge, rather, they came for the glowing orb that was the heart of these people. A power source their fledgling magitech craved.
It became an invasion.
The humans started to attack not only Ka'tharr, but several other beast infested worlds they got their portals to.
The beast-kins fought back but the humans kept on returning.
After learning the concept behind the portals and how they worked, the Ka'tharri shared their knowledge across worlds that were under invasion and soon sent warriors through their portals to destroy these human machines—a desperate act of self-defense.
These portals started to appear in different parts of earth, and the Guild came into the spot light and framed it as a monster invasion.
The shared with the news networks, edited videos of "beasts" emerging from dimensional rifts known as "dungeons" and attacking civilians.
The world out of fear, believed it right away. They cheered the Guild as they killed these beasts in the name of "protecting" them.
The Guild grew, more and more people joined in to stop these invasions and they went to systematically hunt down the beast-kins into extinction.
The Ka'tharri people—Arkemas in particular—in particular were marked serious threats as they not only had advanced technology, but they were adapting faster.
They were made major targets, and today was the day it was about to end for them.
Azan tripped on a rock and fell, rolling on the floor, crying.
His mother ran to him and lifted him up, pressing him tightly against her as she ran with incredible speed.
"Bring down every last one of them!"
A battle cry was heard from the humans as they continued their purge on the land.
Azan cried, but his mother kept comforting him as she ran.
She was taking him to an escape pod where the children were put to be sent out. A means to at least keep the races of Ka'tharr alive.
BANG!
A beam shot through the side of her abdomen, making a small hole. "Aaaarrrhhh!" She screamed, yet not stopping.
Her child's life was at stake and she would do anything at the moment to save him.
The human behind them was about shooting again when a three claws pierced through their stomach from behind and their head was bitten off the neck.
A huge wolf like hybrid beast stood there, its face contorted in rage, bloodied. It swung the humans head away and yelled, "Faster Serah!"
Azan recognized the voice instantly. It was his father's.
He looked up, over his mother's shoulder, he could see more humans approaching and his father beating them.
It was the first time Azan saw his father in his full beast form, the look of a pure monster in his eyes. The first time he was seen fighting.
His father held on but more and more humans surrounded him and were starting to deal lethal damage, soon tying him up.
The moment his father looked up and their eyes met, the beast man let his face transform into the normal one Azan knew and he gave a warm smile.
After that, he watched as his fathers head fall of the body, the smile still there.
He hid his face in his mother's shoulder again and screamed, crying loudly.
His mother didn't need to look back. She knew what had just happened, tears streaming down her cheeks, pain from her injury flaring, but she didn't stop.
She howled and another howl answered from ahead. She was close.
Soon, she reached the places where the pods were arranged and children were being loaded.
"Hurry up!" One of the warriors in charge said, gesturing for Azan's mother to quickly bring the boy.
It was an egg-shaped pod meant for at least two to three children, that was then taken into a machine that fired them out.
Unfortunately, Azan was the only Arkema that was around at the moment. They wanted to wait for another one to arrive—a female to be precise, for the sake of regrowing the race.
Azan's mother begged they just put him in first.
The warrior opened the pod and Azan's mother went on to drop him in. He refused to let go of his mother's garment as he wailed.
"Azan look, mother will come to you when everything goes back to normal, okay? I promise to come find you if we settle things with the bad beasts," she said, trying convince him as she went on to pry open his fingers.
She eventually managed to drop him into the pod and then she put a tooth in his hand. "Father is with you," she said.
It was his dad's canine.
Then she put a hand to her mouth and pulled out her own canine. After cleaning it on her garment, she put it in his hand. "Mother is with you as well."
The warrior then closed the pod. Azan cried harder, hitting the hard glass as hard as he could, knuckles reddening. "Mother! Mother! Not leave me mother!"
Nothing was ever hear outside. It was sound proof.
His mother covered her mouth crying miserably.
The children were starting to get loaded.
Four were fired out, when a huge blast of fire hit the location, destroying several pods.
A figure hovered in the air, eyes glowing red and fire balls forming in their hands. It was a human magician.
The explosion made sent Azan's mother crashing and he saw it. Her leg was twisted at an impossible angle and she could get up, the fire caving in on her.
The human landed on the ground and started clearing the warriors with ease.
She walked past Azan's pod and walked to his mother with a look of disgust.
His mother begged but the human lady didn't understand. Even if she did, it would be a futile attempt.
More humans with guns started to appear. One of the Ka'tharri warriors stood up and quietly picked up Azan's pod after he saw the child was still alive.
Azan watched his mother burn in the fire while this human smiled. He felt his pod get lifted and put in the machine.
Immediately, the person dropped him, their head burst after getting shot by a light beam.
Through the cracked glass, Azan saw a human soldier raise his rifle like a club. The butt slammed against the pod, once, twice—a spiderweb of cracks spreading before his eyes. As the soldier reared back for a final blow, the pod was violently ejected.
Unfortunately, the machine was damaged so his pod was shot with minimal force and worst of all, it entered one of the portals where the humans came from.
… …
The pod crashed in a forest and the door popped open.
The little child cried and cried until he could no more. He eventually started to wander around the woods.
For days he didn't find anything but wild animals that somehow ignored his presence, wearing what he made out to be looks of pity, like they had seen all he had passed through.
He slimmed down, bones now visible. He was incredibly hungry.
SNAP!
He heard the sound of a snapping twig behind him. He spun around, going down like an animal on his fours.
An old man walked over to him and stopped at a distance.
"Grrr!" Azan tried imitating a growl, but it was anything but that.
The old man bent down and took out something in a wrap. "Calm down little one," he said, opening it.
It was a meat pie.
The smell wafted into Azan's nose and he loosened up, his stomach growling.
"Come on. Come take it," the old man said, extending the meat pie.
Reluctantly, Azan walked to the man and snatched it, moving back as if he was going to get killed any time soon.
Sensing no harm, he started to eat the meat pie quickly, clearly showing his hunger.
The old man slowly walked over and placed a hand on Azan's head. "What are you doing in the woods? Where are your parents? Any family?"
The kid tensed but soon fell into it when he remembered how his dad always patted his head. And just like that, he started to cry again.
The old pulled him in and rubbed his shoulder. "It's all right, buddy. You'll be fine."
But while Azan was crying he didn't notice the thing that was in front of him.
It was a system screen, and it displayed a few messages before disappearing.
[Loading System...]
[Syncing... Sync Complete!]
[Welcome User, Azan!]